My research question is "What are the effects of using a stable truss versus not using a stable truss in bridge design?". The contest that has been chosen is the Bridge Design Contest. The Bridge Design contest is an online competition where students in 6-12th grade compete using a bridge design computer program. The date of entry to the competition is January 11, 2016 at 1:00 PM EST, that is also the day the bridge design computer program is released. The competition starts January 12, 2016 at 1:00 PM EST and goes to April 22, 2016 at 1:00 PM. Students in 6-8th grade must enter in the middle school competition. During this project, the effects of having a truss on a bridge is being researched. I joined this competition because I am interested in going into an engineering field of study and this competition was a good point to begin.
Process
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I will research bridge construction online using multiple websites. Secondly, I will download multiple bridge building applications for a more "hands-on" approach. Next, my father and I will build a bridge out of popsicle sticks and then test its weight capacity. Lastly, I will attempt to contact a civil engineer at The University of Minnesota via e-mail for help and insight for this project. Websites that I may use for research include: bridge-info.org, fhwa.dot.gov, and structurae.net. An application that I may use for testing is Bridge Constructor Playground. While using that application, I will record the level, objective, how many vehicles need to cross, budget, and I will include a drawing of the bridge I constructed in my project